The Gap logo – spoke too soon?

12 Oct The Gap logo – spoke too soon?

They pulled it!

One day after I posted my take on the Gap’s new logo, they pulled it from all their publications. It seems they’d gotten such a backlash, and had so many people clamoring for the old logo, that they gave in. The newly introduced logo is no more.

Lost opportunity

I think this was a sad loss of opportunity. Yes, the new logo was terrible. But look at all the attention they garnered. Attention greatly needed for the flagging company. Ok, it was negative attention but pulling out now shows they had no plan in place and it diminishes their stature. Basically it makes them look stupid.

What to do?

There are so many other positive ways they could have handled it – how about this idea?

Start over – Hire a new top-level design firm and review their brief, updating it based on what they’ve learned by recent events.

Get the client base involved – Create a poll on the Gap website where visitors can vote on the best three logo options from the new design firm. Publicize this opportunity through social media. Not only would it pull an enormous amount of people to their website, but their client base would then take ownership of the new logo, whatever it turned out to be – because they were part of the decision-making process.

Roll out – Roll out the new branding campaign, using results of the poll. “By Popular Demand! – 300,000 people voted for our new logo.” Sponsor a massive charity event to unveil the new logo – a concert with some big name performers. Stage giveaways – tshirts and caps, etc – and throw them out into the audience.

Everyone who took part in the voting process will take special notice of the Gap in ads, etc from then on. If the pr is done right, it will be a point of conversation throughout the world for a period of time and it will keep the Gap in people’s minds in a positive way. People will start to see the Gap as a company that gives back and they will take interest in how the company is doing – because they were included.